Bumble and bumble | regis pean

The Bumble and Bumble founding salon in New York, first established in 1986, rebuild in the 1990s and since then gone through many design iterations, was finally ready for a complete interior renovation. The design is based on a consumer experience storyboard, illustrating out all major touch points of a salon visit. “It is important to first focus on what the consumer should experience in every instance while she is in the salon”, says Péan. “ This goes beyond interiors and architecture and includes all aspects of service. Once we agree on how this should look like we derive design ideas from the story and build the environments around it to bring it to life.” -A design strategy which omni//form has developed to respond directly to marketing centric tasks in the retail business. The resulting design re-enforces Bumble and bumble’s leading position in hair care by adding new features to the salon linked together by graphic and structural hair centric textures throughout the spaces: The new retail lounge at the front of the store will be accessed by a new enlarged entrance. It is defined by black and very graphic linear shelving structures that feature next to the full product line assortment interactive “try me” zones with touch screens, ipads and video content for customers to browse and inform on product offering and usage. Further, the display walls will feature memorabilia to highlight this salon’s importance in Bumble’s past. Movable blow out and event stations will offer casual quick service offerings and animation in the store front window. For the interiors the designers chose raw materials and black and grey paint finishes throughout the salon in continuation of Bumble’s existing visual identity. A newly defined customer connector hallway to the back of house, “the runway” will feature photographs of customers and their various hair styles shot by the Bumble team and supported by trend watch videos on the “wall of fame”. The cut floor is lightly separated by partitions to give customers a private and secure environment while being serviced. The cut floor stations have been enhanced with product displays so customers can see and touch the product that is being used on them. Through ipad support they will be able to not only entertain themselves during services but also buy products and order light snacks and drinks. The east wall of the cut floor features the new “wall of heroes” highlighting photographs of Bumble’s most creative talents. Changing Rooms have been enlarged and redesigned, featuring Bumble’s unique graphic textures as wall papers. The hair wash area has been reprogrammed to include a comfortable waiting zone, surrounded by library shelves with themed literature, magazines and inspirational imagery. The ceiling will feature a handpainted mural by Artist Jay Lohman in complementation to bumble’s signature textures. A new consultation lounge with large mirrors and bar style setups has been added to the customer journey to offer first hand expertise and advice before the haircuts. The new salon opened on September 9th, 2012